How We work

Equity Principle Inform our Work at Every Stage

The Institute of Child Development Research and Social Change is a community-based participatory action research firm, which focuses on the developmental niche of child care to explore and understand families’ culturally adaptive responses to poverty and social injustice.

What makes Indigo Cultural Center unique is our approach to evaluation and research projects, which is grounded in the principles of community-based participatory research. We use a collaborative model and working style that involves a diverse group of community stakeholders as partners in the planning and implementation process. We recognize the strengths that each partner brings to the project and build on those assets by: consulting with the partners initially and at key milestones throughout the project, integrating their input and knowledge into all aspects of the evaluation, asking for feedback on a regular basis, and seeking consensus on key issues and outcomes.

Equity is a basic tenet in all our research. In each phase of research design and implementation, our leadership and staff give attention and respect to cultural and diversity issues existing in the community or organization being served or the topic being addressed.

For any specific project, we organize a team of individuals that are best suited to undertake the requirements of each project. These evaluation project teams may include: additional researchers with Ph.D.’s and extensive research experience, a statistical consultant, a project manager, research specialists, data collectors and data entry specialists. Evaluation project teams meet on a regular basis to provide organization and oversight of all research activities to ensure that the work advances in a timely manner and with high quality. We also have an administrative infrastructure to oversee and coordinate fiscal and budget matters, as well as staffing matters and community partnership relations. Indigo Cultural Center works with additional consultants that are available as needed to fulfill specific requirements of a project, including but not limited to bi-lingual researchers and Spanish translators, experts in sampling frames and statistical analysis, and assistants for online data collection and web-based surveys.

Eva and her team went above and beyond to understand us, what we do and how we wanted to move forward. Time was invested in relationship building, and the end result was influential evaluation data that has helped advance the conversation about the effectiveness of mental health consultation across Arizona and beyond.
– Leah Eckley, Program Manager, Smart Support, a program of Southwest Human Development